Revision Project: Omnipotence

Today, I thought I would take a step back and mention my previous manuscript project, Omnipotence. I completed the first draft in February, and it is sitting to age while I work on my current project, after which I will take up the red pen and bloody it to death!

Here’s the pitch:

“After a global cataclysm wipes out all technology on Earth, five strangers across America discover they have been endowed with god-like abilities, and must learn how to deal with their powers… and each other.”

Omnipotence begins by following the events of a sudden unexplained natural disaster, as seen from the eyes of five different characters from differing walks of life. Their stories begin to converge as the novel progresses, and the characters react in distinct ways to being granted omnipotence. Their exploration leads them to test the limits of their powers, and when human frailty is given the ultimate challenge, some choose the service of their fellow man… others, unspeakable evil.

Though the first draft is complete, it is still very much a work in progress. The greatest challenge to this novel is in keeping so many POV’s alive, in balance, and interesting for the reader. Though I have entertained the notion of whittling down the scope of the story to a single POV, I continually return to the original premise… how do people respond to absolute power? I find the exploration of the five Empowered to be the soul of the story.

The tone of Omnipotence is somewhat grim, set in an America which has been suddenly and violently plunged back into an eighteenth century level of technology. The landscape is wrought with panic and the devastation of an entire society which has forgotten how to survive without electricity. All the more, therefore, that the people look to the Empowered for help.

All the more they feel betrayed when the Empowered prove to be human after all.